Researchers at the Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, USA monitored the physiological effects of travel sickness by recording the stomach activity during an applied degrees of motion were stimulated.

Thirty four men and twenty six women participated in the study. Each participant was placed inside an optokinetic drum which simulates the unsteady movements associated with causing the symptoms of motion sickness. Each test lasted for a 16 minutes and electrogastrograms (EGGs) were used to record the effects on the stomach.

A comparison of the men and women revealed that the women all had significantly higher symptom scores than men, although the researchers were surprised to discover that comparisons of the electrogastrogram readings of stomach activity revealed no significant or detectable difference in the stomach patterns of the women over the men.

This researchers concluded that, although women seem to be more susceptible than men to suffer from motion sickness and particularly so in relation to gastrointestinal symptoms, these symptoms are not caused by abnormalities in the stomach itself. This means that travel sickness in women is not caused by an upset stomach or problems with the stomach, but must derive from some other cause.

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